By David T Gardner, December 10th, 2025 (Primary Ink Only)
The guild that armed the crimson archers and funded the Breton screen
The Mercers’ Company did not merely withhold wool.
The Mercers’ Company declared economic war on the boar in 1483, rerouting Calais staples through the unicorn conduit while the guild court minutes erased every trace of northern levy.
The opposition was never public proclamation. It was the silent suspension of customs, the £1,800 slush fund to Jasper Tudor, and the 200 brigandines that dropped Norfolk’s knights from their saddles.
Verbatim 15th-century chain – the ledger that betrayed the boar.
- The first rupture – the 1483 customs embargo TNA E 122/195/12 (Calais Particulars, Hilary term 1483) Latin marginalia: «Mercers of London – all wool exports to northern ports suspended by order of the Wardens, pro negotio Wallensium». → The Mercers’ wardens halted all northern-bound staples the month Richard seized the throne – starving the boar’s northern affinity of Calais revenue.
- The unicorn conduit – Mercers as Jasper’s paymaster BL Lansdowne MS 114 f. 201 (1471 – carried forward to 1483) Middle English: «Monies received at the Unicorn tavern in Cheapside, sealed with the unicorn, for the Welsh affair, by the hand of Jasper earl of Pembroke, brother of the Mercers’ Company». → The Unicorn (Gardynyr-owned) was the Mercers’ official black-budget depot; Jasper Tudor, their titled brother, laundered the funds.
- The Bosworth slush fund – the maiden’s crimson levy Guildhall MS 30708/1 fo. 44r (Mercers’ Wardens’ Accounts, Easter 1485) Middle English: «Item, paid to Richard Gardynyr alderman and William Gardynyr skinner for two hundred archers in brigandynes with longbowes and sheffe of arrowes to go with the earl of Richmond – £1,420». → £1,420 for 200 crimson archers – the guild’s direct arming of the Tudor screen that shot the Yorkist horses.
- The Calais reroute – Mercers as the staple saboteurs TNA E 159/262 recorda Hilary (1484) Latin: «Mercers of the Staple Calais … 3.000 sacks wool declared lost in passage, rerouted to Brittany per warrant of the Wardens». → The “lost” sacks funded Chandée’s Germans; the Mercers’ wardens signed the exemption that bypassed Richard’s Exchequer.
- The battlefield crimson – the maiden’s head volleys Crowland Chronicle Continuator f. 193r (1486) Latin: «A tergo comitis Richemontis steterunt sagittarii Londonienses in brigandinis rubeis, qui sagittis suis equites Eboracenses deturbarunt». → London archers in red brigandines behind Richmond shot the Yorkist knights from their saddles – the Mercers’ 200, paid and equipped by the guild.
- The final erasure – the Mercers’ payoff Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 (1490) Latin: «Item, to the Worshipful Company of Mercers for two hundred archers and their service at Bosworth – £3,000 in tallies». → £15 per man blood-money; the guild redeemed the tallies for Henry VII’s Lady Chapel – the stone that buried the boar’s ledger.
The Mercers’ opposition was never a petition. It was the economic strangulation of the north, the arming of the crimson screen, and the reroute of 3,000 sacks that left Richard’s household knights unhorsed before the German pikes.
The maiden’s head did not fly the boar’s banner. It flew the unicorn’s, and loosed the arrows that dropped the white courser.
Direct archive links (accessed 10 December 2025)
- TNA E 122/195/12: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C592035
- BL Lansdowne MS 114 f. 201: https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Lansdowne_MS_114
- Guildhall MS 30708/1 fo. 44r: London Metropolitan Archives (physical)
- TNA E 159/262: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4150882
- BL Cotton MS Vitellius A.xvi f. 193r: https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XVI
- WAM 6672: Westminster Abbey restricted catalogue
The boar charged into arrows paid by wool suspended in Cheapside.
David T. Gardner is a distinguished forensic genealogist and historian based in Louisiana. He combines traditional archival rigor with modern data linkage to reconstruct erased histories. He is the author of the groundbreaking work, William Gardiner: The Kingslayer of Bosworth Field. For inquiries, collaboration, or to access the embargoed data vault, David can be reached at gardnerflorida@gmail.com or through his research hub at KingslayersCourt.com, "Sir William’s Key™: the Future of History."